ᐅ Patio and driveway

Today, the entire construction access road was removed, and the levels were further evened out. Had to carry my toolbox through the mud today.

A proper construction road is made of recycled material. This is ideal for a paved surface. So why remove it? Usually, the construction road is placed exactly where the later access path will be, so the cost is only incurred once.

Directly under the stones, there should be crushed sand, not gravel. Coarse gravel is rarely used nowadays because, for example, ants can burrow through it and undermine the whole structure. Crushed sand compacts so firmly through the vibration of the stones that nothing can pass through.

Otherwise, have fun—the next few days or weeks will be exciting because you will finally see some progress outside (it’s been a long time since the outside of the house was completely finished at the end of the shell construction, and that was a long time ago). Once the garden area is leveled, the living atmosphere won’t be far behind.

P.S. There should be no rain between laying the stones and compacting them, or the stones need to be covered. Otherwise, the whole setup might settle unevenly. This was done correctly at our place but not at the neighbor’s. You can already see the effects after just a few weeks...

Payday schrieb:
And directly under the stones should be crushed sand, not gravel. Coarse gravel is actually rarely used nowadays because ants can pass through it and hollow out the whole structure. Crushed sand is compacted so firmly by vibrating the stones that nothing can get through.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true.

I would always recommend gravel directly under the stones.

I have both. Crushed sand under the terrace and gravel under the driveway and paths.

The paths and driveway still look as if they were freshly laid, with no excavations by ants or anything else, and nothing grows through the joints.

On the terrace, however, there are constantly ants and sand that they bring up to the surface. Also, grass grows along the edges.

The construction access road will be reinstated as well. They took it away for now but will bring it back later.

Why do unnecessary work?

Ask the landscape contractor… they plan their logistics.